14/5/2004
Loss Of Wild Bamboo Threatens Endangered Species

As many as half the world's 1,200 woody bamboo species may be in danger of extinction, say the UN, with such iconic wildlife species as the giant panda, mountain gorilla and lemur facing a struggle for survival because of a catastrophic loss of wild bamboo. Some 250 woody bamboo species have less than 2,000 square kilometres of forest – an area the size of London – remaining within their ranges.

Millions of people use wild bamboo, one of the world's most ancient life forms, for construction, handicrafts and food. International trade in bamboo products, mostly from cultivated sources, is worth more than $2 billion annually, according to as new report issued by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan and the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).

"This new report highlights how vital it now is for the international community to take a far greater interest in these extraordinary plant species," UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said this week.

The report lists the many endangered species that depend on bamboo. In Asia they include the red panda and Himalayan black bear and perhaps the best known, the giant panda, of which only 600 are left in the wild.

In Africa, the report draws attention to mountain gorillas, of which it says less than 700 still remain in the wild, and which depend on bamboos for up to 90 per cent of their diet in some seasons. In Madagascar, the critically endangered greater and golden bamboo lemurs depend on bamboo for much of their diet, and the rarest tortoise in the world, the ploughshare tortoise, is also intimately connected with bamboos. In South America, the spectacled bear, the mountain tapir and many endangered bird species are connected with bamboo in the Andes, Amazon and Atlantic forests.

The extraordinary life cycle of bamboos – individuals of each species flower once simultaneously every 20 to 100 years and then die – make them especially vulnerable to rapid deforestation that is restricting the areas in which they can survive. The " massive forest destruction" that threatens this vital habitat must be halted, says UNEP.